I saw for the first time in yrs on the shelf a btl of the Mateus Rose, so I thought I'd take another one for the team:1. Mateus The Original Rose (11%; http://www.Evaton.com; RS: 1.5%; Energetic Value: 71kcal|297kJ) P&B by SoGrapeVinhos/Gaia/Portugal NV: Clear glass btl w/ spiffied up label; the screw-top closure was so tight that I had to use Vice-Grips to get the cap off, even though I'd scored the screwcap collar; pale salmon color w/ lots of fizzy bubbles; rather grapey/fruity.simple/cranberry/strawberry slight soda-poppy light earthy nose; quite frizzante some off-dry rather soft rather grapey/strawberry/cranberry/fruity slight earthy flavor w/ no tannins; very short some frizzante/tangy grapey/fruity/cranberry/strawberry off-dry slight earthy finish w/ no tannins; a bit on the vapid/light-weight/undistinguished side but not as sweet as I expected and actually better than I expected; a pretty classic Oakland wine. $10.00 (SFW&S)__________________________A wee BloodyPulpit: 1. In Portugese, Mateus means the "Gift of God". Around 1966, Mateus (and Lancers) were my gateway drug into the World of Wine. I recalled that I'd entered my first InterNet TN on this wine back in 1966 on WineCrazies.com, an early precursor to WineBerserkers.com. There you would often find TN's from RobertLawrenceBalzer/AndreSimon/RobertFinegan/Pliny the Elder, and the like. So I searched back thru my archives and, low&behold, found that original punched-card deck that had my TN. So I hooked up my punch-card reader to my iPhone thru its USB port and downloaded the TN to my iPhone. It said:

Back in those early days of the InterNet, the punch-card machines didn't have a "/", only a "-", so the style of my TN makes it a bit difficult to read. As you can see, the quality of Mateus has not changed a whole lot over the yrs.Tom

found a bottle of this a few months ago locally, bought it, your notes say it all. wife was kinda surprised that I bought, even more surprised when I said it wasn't bad..nothing to write home about but it was an easy drinker, price locally a few bucks less than what you paid..

Jon Leifer wrote:found a bottle of this a few months ago locally, bought it, your notes say it all. wife was kinda surprised that I bought, even more surprised when I said it wasn't bad..nothing to write home about but it was an easy drinker, price locally a few bucks less than what you paid..

Yup, Jon...a wine that exceeded my very low expectations. Maybe I’ll try another one 50 yrs down the road!!

I've read that they relaunched it with a differet formaulation, less sweet. They also slightly changed the bottle design and I believe they've added other wines under the Mateus label. But I haven't tasted any of them, and now, thanks to Tom, I don't think I will!

BTW I don't recall the original being that strong, certainly not 17.4%

(You must have been sold a duff punch card machine if it didn't have a '/'. It'd been no use on IBM whose machine instructions started (and still do) with // eg

Peter May wrote:Mateus Rose was the first wine I ordered in a restaurant.

I've read that they relaunched it with a differet formaulation, less sweet. They also slightly changed the bottle design and I believe they've added other wines under the Mateus label. But I haven't tasted any of them, and now, thanks to Tom, I don't think I will!

BTW I don't recall the original being that strong, certainly not 17.4%

(You must have been sold a duff punch card machine if it didn't have a '/'. It'd been no use on IBM whose machine instructions started (and still do) with // eg

Yeah, Peter....really trippin' down memory lane here. Haven't thought about JCL (Job Control Language) in quitea few yrs. First used it on the IBM 1410 in the early '60's. Used to know what all those keywords stood for. Not no more.Tom